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Stat Line Of The Night — 3/7/12 — Lionel Messi

With a total of three UEFA Champions League titles, three UEFA Champions League top goalscorer awards, and one UEFA Champions League Final Man of the Match award, Lionel Messi has already made his mark on the prestigious European club competition. But there is always room to make your mark an even bigger one, a Messi did just that with his record-breaking five-goal performance against Bayer Leverkusen during the second leg of their Round of 16 match-up yesterday.

Messi scored two in the opening half, and added another three in the second half as Barcelona cruised to the easy 7-1 victory, helping them advance to the quarterfinals via a 10-2 victory on aggregate. Messi’s five goals were not only a personal best, but that total was also the most goals ever scored in a UEFA Champions League match. As a result, he earns “The Stat Line of the Night” for Wednesday, March 7, 2012.